Effective teaching starts with high-quality preparation that provides prospective teachers with a strong foundation on which they can continue to build throughout their career. Initial teacher preparation should provide beginning practitioners with a coherent learning experience that integrates coursework, practical training, induction and early career development. This requires education systems to conceive of initial teacher preparation as part of a career-long learning continuum, to expand the range of actors involved in the process, and to create and sustain strong partnerships and feedback loops between schools and teacher education institutions. While the importance of practice-based components in initial teacher education (ITE) is now widely recognised, the COVID-19 disruption of schooling has created new challenges for their implementation. This Policy Brief draws on evidence from the OECD School Resources Review and beyond to explore the following questions:

• What do we know about effective initial teacher education programmes?
• How to link teachers’ initial education to induction and continuing professional learning?
• How to adapt initial teacher preparation to remote and hybrid teaching contexts